Configurable duty types
Define every role, category, point value, colour, and sign-up rule.
Module deep-dive
Sailing Club Duty Rota Software
Configurable duty types, qualification gates, swap requests, exemptions, reminders, and a roster calendar - the complete duty management module inside SailHQ.
Last updated 19 May 2026
What this module does
Assign, swap, exempt, remind, track
The duty management module is where the running roster of your sailing club lives. It assigns members to duty slots against the season schedule, lets members swap when life gets in the way, exempts the people who genuinely cannot do duties, sends reminders before each duty, and tracks who has done what. Admins generate or edit the rota from a calendar view. Members see their own slots from the member portal on a phone or laptop.
Qualification gates
Keep safety-critical roles available only to members with the right certificate.
Managed swaps
Open or targeted requests with a clear approval trail.
Member exemptions
Time-bounded or permanent, with the approving admin recorded.
Automatic reminders
Configurable email reminders and cancellation deadlines.
Roster oversight
Filled, unfilled, and pending slots visible from one calendar.
Every rule is configurable per club. You define the duty types, the qualifications attached to each one, the points each is worth, the cancellation deadline, and how many days ahead reminders go out. The defaults cover most clubs out of the box. The flexibility covers the unusual cases - the cruising club that runs Bar duty, the training centre that schedules Instructor slots as duties, the larger club that splits Race Officer into Senior and Junior. If you need a duty type that does not exist yet, you add it.
The rest of this page walks through each piece of the module in detail. For the wider context of how duty management fits with the season schedule, the member portal, and committee permissions, the duty rota pillar sets out why clubs choose SailHQ over a spreadsheet or DutyMan in the first place.
Configurable duty types
Every duty type defined the way your club runs
Duty types are not a fixed list. You configure each one yourself, group them into categories, and decide how members can sign up.
Each duty type carries a name, a short name for tight column views, an icon, a custom colour, a point value, and a sort order that controls how it appears across the platform. The point value is what feeds your fairness reporting at the end of the season - a Race Officer slot can be worth more than a Galley slot, and members accrue points across the year so admins can see who is pulling their weight.
Every duty type also carries a qualification requirement, which can be left empty or set to one or more qualifications a member must hold to be eligible. Standard RYA qualifications such as Powerboat L2 and First Aid sit alongside custom qualifications you define yourself - a Race Officer Certificate, a Junior Coach DBS, a Galley Food Hygiene certificate, anything club-specific.
Self-signup is a per-type toggle. Some clubs want members to claim Galley slots first-come first-served from the portal. Others want admins to assign every Race Officer slot manually and never let members self-allocate. SailHQ supports both at the same time, so the same club can run open Galley sign-ups alongside admin-only Race Officer assignments without having to compromise on either.
Duty categories sit one level above duty types. Group your race-day duties together, your hospitality duties together, your training duties together. Each category has its own colour band so the rota reads at a glance on a busy Saturday.
Qualification gates
Qualifications enforced at the sign-up button
Block unsafe self-sign-up
Members without Powerboat L2 cannot self-sign-up for a Safety Boat slot. SailHQ blocks the button at the point of sign-up and shows a clear note explaining the missing qualification. The same logic applies to any duty type with a qualification requirement attached - First Aid for medical-cover duties, Race Officer Certificate for Race Officer slots, and any custom qualification you have configured.
Treat custom qualifications properly
Custom qualifications are first-class. Add a Race Officer Certificate, a Galley Food Hygiene certificate, a Junior Coach DBS check, anything your club tracks. Each member's qualification record stores the award date, the awarding admin, and an optional expiry date. When a qualification expires, the member loses access to any duty type that requires it - automatically, without the admin having to remember to update the rota.
See expiries before they become gaps
Admins see every member's qualifications sorted by expiry, so chasing renewals is one screen rather than a fishing expedition through training certificates. Members see their own qualifications on the portal, including expiry dates, so they know what they need to renew before the start of the season.
Keep a controlled override
The override matters. Real life happens. An admin can always assign any member to any duty manually, regardless of qualification status, and the system records that the assignment was an admin override. The default rule prevents the awkward conversation in the dinghy park; the override lets you handle the genuine exceptions without fighting the software.
Swap requests
A proper state machine, not a WhatsApp thread
Members can create targeted or open swap requests from the portal, while committee roles keep the final approval and a complete audit trail.
Leg 1
Request
A targeted request starts in awaiting_target. An open request is available to every qualified member.
Leg 2
Cover
The named or qualified covering member accepts from their own portal.
Leg 3
Approve
An authorised committee member approves or rejects the pending change.
Leg 4
Notify
Both members see the decision and the duty formally moves to the covering member.
Swap requests in SailHQ move through a clean set of states. A targeted request - "Sarah, can you cover my safety boat next Sunday?" - starts in awaiting_target. An open request, broadcast to anyone qualified, starts in pending the moment another member picks it up. Once the second member is locked in, the request sits in pending until an admin reviews it, at which point it moves to approved or rejected. Either side can cancel before approval.
Members can create both targeted and open swap requests from their portal. A targeted request goes to one specific member, who accepts or declines from their own portal. An open request appears in a list visible to every member who is qualified for that duty type - they pick it up the way a member would pick up an open shift in any modern rota app. Either way, the originating member sees status changes in real time on their dashboard, with no chasing required.
Both sides see the full chain. The original member, the covering member, and the admin all see the same swap record with timestamps for every state change, the reason given, and the admin who approved or rejected. When something gets queried later in the season, you have the audit trail.
Notifications fire on every state change. The original member knows when the request is accepted, when admin has approved it, and when the duty has been formally moved across to the new member. The covering member knows the moment admin signs off. Admins see pending swaps on their duty dashboard and clear them with a click - no hunt through email threads or chat groups.
How it fits
Where duty management connects
Duty management does not run in isolation. It hooks into the rest of SailHQ at three main points.
Series and events
Race series and events generate the duty slots that flow into the rota. Configure once, regenerate per season.
Member portal
Members see their upcoming duties, request swaps, and confirm assignments from the portal on any device.
Roles and permissions
Granular permissions control who can edit duty types, approve swaps, and grant exemptions.
Exemptions
Per-member exemptions, time-bounded or permanent
Exemptions live against the member record. Each one targets a single duty type or every duty type at once. Each one is either permanent or carries a start and end date for time-bounded cover - a six-month medical exemption, a season-long committee exemption, a one-year sponsor arrangement.
The approving admin is recorded against every exemption, along with an optional reason. When a member queries why someone else is exempt and they are not, you can show the audit trail: approved by Jane Commodore on this date, valid until that date, on these grounds. No more committee meetings spent re-litigating last year's exemptions. Exempt members are skipped automatically when admins generate or assign duties.
Reminders and deadlines
Email reminders, queued asynchronously
SailHQ sends email duty reminders ahead of every duty. The lead time is configurable in club settings. Some clubs set a single reminder seven days out. Others run a two-step pattern - seven days, then two days. The reminder email shows the duty, the date, the role, and a link straight back to the portal in case the member wants to swap.
Reminders are queued asynchronously, which matters at scale. A club with 300 members and a busy Saturday programme generates a lot of email traffic at once, and a synchronous send-loop will either time out or hammer your mail provider. SailHQ pushes every reminder through a queue worker that retries on transient failures and logs delivery, so you do not get silent drops.
The cancellation deadline is configurable too. Set it to forty-eight hours and members cannot cancel their own duty within two days of the start - the system blocks the action and points them at the swap flow instead. Admins can still override in genuine emergencies, but the default rule prevents the Friday-night drop-out that leaves you scrambling on Saturday morning.
Admin roster view
A calendar with the four numbers that matter
The admin roster view is a calendar by month. Every duty slot for every event is laid out with clear filled or unfilled status. Click an empty slot to assign manually - SailHQ filters the picker to qualified, non-exempt members so you cannot accidentally assign someone who shouldn't be there. Click a filled slot to unassign or reassign in one move. Pending swap requests sit on a dedicated dashboard alongside the calendar.
The stats dashboard at the top of the screen shows four numbers: total duty slots this season, filled count, unfilled count, and pending swaps. Those four are what tells you whether the season is on track. Anything else lives one click deeper.
If you are the one running race day, the view for race officers walks through how SailHQ shapes around the OOD seat specifically.
Included on every plan
Duty management is part of the standard SailHQ feature set. There is no separate duty rota tier, no per-member duty add-on, and no upgrade required to use qualification gates or swap approvals. See the pricing page for tiers by club size.
View pricing
Common questions
Duty management questions
For anything else, see the full FAQ or drop us a line.
Each duty type can require one or more qualifications. When a member tries to self-sign-up, SailHQ checks the qualifications attached to their record. If a required qualification is missing, expired, or not yet awarded, the sign-up is blocked at the button. Admins always have an override and can assign any member manually if circumstances call for it. Both standard qualifications such as Powerboat L2 and First Aid and custom qualifications you define yourself work the same way.
Yes. Any admin or committee role with the duty management permission can approve, reject, or cancel a swap request. SailHQ records which admin actioned each one against the swap record. This means your rear commodore, club secretary, and race officer can all clear the queue independently rather than waiting for a single person to log in.
Admin-assigned duties show up on the member's portal dashboard with a clear confirmation prompt. Until they confirm, the duty appears as unacknowledged in the admin roster view. You can chase confirmations directly from the dashboard, send a reminder, reassign the slot, or open it for swap. The unconfirmed state is visible at a glance so nothing slips between assignment and the day itself.
Yes. Send across your existing rota spreadsheet, member list, and any qualification records you hold. The SailHQ team will map duty types, members, and historical assignments into the platform. Most duty rota migrations land within one to two days. You keep the historical record for reference and start the new season with rules already in place.
Duty types can be archived rather than hard-deleted, which keeps historical assignments intact for reporting. An archived duty type no longer shows in dropdowns or sign-up screens but remains visible against past duties. If a duty type has never been used, it can be removed outright. Categories work the same way - archive when you are done, hard-delete if it is unused.
See duty management in action
Book a 20-minute walkthrough and we'll set up your duty types, qualifications, and a sample roster on the call.